7 GREAT NOVELS TO HELP IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH

Reading is one of the most fun and effective ways to improve your English language skills. It can help to expand your vocabulary and expose you to different sentence structures, all while you enjoy some brilliant stories.

Adopting English books as learning tools can help you reach English fluency faster than ever before. For this purpose, e-readers and tablets are great instruments for language learners as they include dictionaries as well. This means, if you do not know a word, you simply tap on it and read its definition.

So pick one of the novels and get started! It may feel like a slow process, but it is effective.

The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemmingway

This is a famous classic. Almost all native English speakers will have read this book at some point in school. Ernest Hemingway is well-known for his clear writing style and short sentence structure, which is great for English language learners. It tells the story of an old, Cuban fisherman who is on a mission to make the catch of his life.

Lord of the Flies – William Golding

William Golding’s compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. When a group of boys are isolated on a desert island, the society they create descends into ruthless behavior. Labelled a parable, an allegory, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse this novel has established itself as a true classic.

Animal Farm – George Orwell

A satire about corruption related to the Russian Revolution and the Stalin era. In this short, allegorical novel Orwell uses simple English to appeal to all reading levels with a ‘less is more’ approach.

Tuesdays with Morrie – Mitch Albom

This book is a memoir by American writer Mitch Albom. When he reconnects with Morrie Schwartz, his former college professor, he learns valuable life lessons and shares with readers all the funny, insightful wisdom that Morrie reveals in the last months of his life. It is a great book to pick up a more conversational style of reading and writing.

High Fidelity – Nick Hornby

This book is a hilarious trip through the mind of a thirty-something single male who cannot decide what he wants to do with his life. Readers observe the day-to-day monotony of the narrator, Rob Fleming, a heartbroken vinyl record storeowner living in north London, as he second-guesses every decision he has ever made. This modern story uses a casual style of language and has a quick-pace feel with short, funny conversations between the characters.

The Giver – Lois Lowry

Lowry uses short sentences and simple grammar to create a story that is attention-grabbing right from the start. It is about a boy called Jonas and the community he is part of – where freedom, individuality and choice do not exist. The Giver is a timeless story of one of the age-old questions: Is there such a thing as a perfect society?

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

This book is a murder mystery novel like no other. It is the story about the adventures of a young boy Christopher, who describes himself as „a mathematician with some behavioral difficulties”. When he discovers the murder of his neighbor’s dog, he decides to investigate this. This improbable story of Christopher’s quest to investigate the suspicious death of the neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.